Accountability essence of democracy – Ekweremadu

The Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu has harped on accountability by elected representatives to their constituents.He said this remained the essence of democratic governance and urged elected officers at all levels to periodically render account of their stewardship to the people they represent and also aggregate their expectations in return.

This is also as he hailed the Federal Government for awarding contracts for three road projects in Enugu West Senatorial Zone.

Senator Ekweremadu spoke Thursday, at the 4th session of the Enugu West Peoples’ Assemble in Ezeagu local government, Enugu State.

He said the assembly which was established to engender frequent interface between elected officials and the electorate in the zone had availed representatives of the people at all levels of government the opportunity to directly engage the people and chart the way forward.

Senator Ekweremadu who expressed delight that the the Enugu West water for all programme had taken off with the development of the first set of boreholes in Ezeagu local government said and additional rig has been procured for areas with difficult topography.

He identified the roads projects to include: the Agbogugu-Ihe-Owerecourt-Ogugu-Nenwe- Mgbowo road awarded at the cost of 14 billion. The Affa-Egede- Umuoka-Umulungbe-Awhum road and the Inyi-Akpuogoeze-Ufuma road.

“I believe that democracy is a type of government that requires accountability. There cannot be democracy without accountability. That is why we have agreed in Enugu west that we are going to show the way for others to follow.

“For the first time in the history of democracy and politics in Nigeria, we have established a zonal parliament in Enugu West and the essence is to create the opportunity to account to our people in every three months.

“Those of us in government in all capacities thus come before our people and tell them what we have done in our representative capacities within each quarter and also in return, receive feedbacks from our constituents regarding their assessment of our performance and expectations and that is why we are here today. That is the business of this parliament and I am happy we are achieving our aims.

“Our water for all programme has taken off with the development of the first set of borehole in Ezeagu. Our aim is to bring water to all communities in Enugu west. In addition to the rig that has already been deployed and is serving Udi, Ezeagu and some parts of Orji River, we have decided to procure a deep water drilling rig that will service Awgu, and Aninri because they have a different topography. We have also decided to set up a committee that will effectively coordinate the water for all programme.

“Am also happy to announce that the federal government has just awarded fourteen road projects across the whole of Nigeria and out of these, three are from Enugu West. These include Agbogugu-Ihe-owerecourt-Ogugu-Nenwe- Mgbowo road awarded at the cost of 14 billion. The 6.2 billion Afa-Egede- Umuoka-Umulungbe-Awhum road and the Inyi-Akpuogoeze-Ufuma road.

“We very grateful to the federal government for coming to our aid, we especially thank the minister of works, Dr. Babatunde Fashola who has performed extremely well. He has shown that any part of Nigeria belongs to this country as well and that we are entitled to all the amenities that the government can provide,” he said.